Ciao all!
I work part-time as a Social Media Assistant for Parsons and here are some answers to a lot of questions that newly accepted students have been asking me!
AAS Fashion Design Program Overview:
Technically 65 total credits (curriculum here), but anybody with a BA will transfer 21 liberal arts credits and anyone with certain art classes in their first degree may be able to transfer 31 (and can therefore be “Fast Track” if they so chose). For students needing to take all 65 credits, it will take them four semesters (two years). Students needing 44 credits can do it in 3 semesters. And students needing 34 credits can do Fast Track which is one crazy year, or chose to spread it to 3 or even 4 semesters (there are tons of amazing classes to take). Courses are 2 hours and 40 minutes, one day per week with the exception of Construction 2, which is two class periods per week for a total of 5 hours and 20 minutes per week (usually right in a row, but can be two separate days if taken in the evening).
There are three Construction 1 classes: Sewing, Draping, and Pattern-Making. I recommend taking them in that order if you are part-time (or all in your first semester if you are full-time). You cannot take Construction 2 until these three classes are done. (Fast Track students will take Construction 2 and 3 in the same semester - it's a lot to learn!) The rest of the classes have some leeway, but I also recommend taking Drawing 1 and a computer CAD class (Photoshop or Illustrator) in your first semester, probably along with Process & Skills & Textile Survey or History. If you can, take a Drawing class EVERY semester or at least do Mr. Ogawa’s workshop (he is definitely an amazing teacher) – he has a workshop once per week, then you will be ahead – drawing/illustrating fashion is most likely what you will be doing in a Fashion Design job. Being able to do flats in Illustrator and fabric design in Photoshop will also be amazingly helpful and learning Photoshop so you can do Mood boards for any classes that require it will also be great throughout your time at Parsons and beyond!
There are, of course, tons of electives (and sometimes competitions) to chose from, so read all of those emails! (I heard there were 15 coming-up for the next year!!! Wow, I’m jealous!) And definitely take your resume to Parsons Career Services ASAP to get the log-in information for College Central (but you need their log-in to get the Parsons-specific internships), where all internships are listed. Sometimes an internship will last you just a week (leading up to and/or including Fashion Weeks), or will be for longer (like a semester or a year even, if you love it!).
Oh, and read everything you can now about FUSION (and Facebook) to find out if you are interested in applying. It’s a great competition between Parsons and FIT every year, but it isn’t planned by Parsons Administration, so they don’t send out email reminders. (I’m still bitter that I missed the deadline in the Fall!) You illustrate a collection for the Fall deadline, are chosen in the Fall, and then design your collection (and make it) and have the runway show in the Spring. It’s grueling, but an unbelievable opportunity. This also means that you get to better compete with BFA students who make their entire thesis collections and get them photographed. We do not make thesis collections in AAS, and don’t get the opportunity to have photographs taken (unless you do that on your own, which some students did), so our portfolios look entirely different from BFA. I don’t necessarily see this as a disadvantage, because most fashion designers don’t actually make their collections, they just illustrate them! (Most employers won’t care to see the photographs anyhow, just your illustrations – ie: can you get your ideas across, and can you use Photoshop & Illustrator?)
The electives I took were TAILORING (you just make one tailored jacket from Mr. Proscia’s patterns), but learn a lot of tailoring secrets and techniques), MERCHANDISING WORKSHOP (it was a competition for Under Armour), SHOE DESIGN (if you take the BFA class, like I did, you actually make a pair of shoes under the direction of Howard Davis. Your first semester, you have to make flats, but if you take it again, you can make heels – wish I would have known that so I could have taken it twice!), ECO-FASHION: SUSTAINABLE SOLUTIONS (lots of information about eco-techniques and eco-designers – one of my favorite classes at Parsons and I heard Parsons will be incorporating a lot more eco-techniques in the near future, even starting in every construction class in the Fall), SILK-SCREEN PRINTING (really just for fun – loved it), TEXTILES (with David Leung – we learned manipulation techniques; dyeing, smocking, pleating, yo-yos, cording, etc… - I don’t know if it’s still around, but I loved it – it is not the same as Textiles Survey), & HAND EMBROIDERY & APPLIQUE BEADING (with Vashti Vertuil – just get it okayed with your advisor first so you get the credits! I still use this class all the time and I took it before Construction 1 – Sewing and then aced that class after!)! I hope that helps a little bit, but those are just a SMALL percentage of the electives offered! I’ve heard great things about the Accessory Design classes, hand- & machine- knitting classes, Couture & Avant Garde Techniques classes, and many more.
Okay, that is a lot of information for one blog post, but let me know if you want to know more!
Yours truly,
Alex
